Premier announces $2.4B for Sick Kids’ patient care centre

Sick Kids is getting a $2.4-billion booster shot from Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals.

Wynne announced Friday that the Hospital for Sick Children will receive the new capital funding in next week’s provincial budget.

The money will go toward the design and construction of a new patient care centre that will add to the downtown Toronto hospital’s capacity.

“As any parent knows, when a child is sick nothing else matters,” said Wynne, a mother of three adult children and grandmother of three.

“The incredible physicians, nurses, and staff members at Sick Kids understand that,” she said. “That’s what this historic investment in Sick Kids is all about and it’s why we’re building new and improved hospitals around the province.”

Wynne’s announcement — the day after she said hospitals’ operating funding will jump by 4.6 per cent, or $822 million, next year — comes against the backdrop of a June 7 election.

It’s part of $19 billion in hospital capital expenditures over the next decade